Brewer's Minute: The Most Played Sideboard Cards in Modern

Hey everyone! It's time for another Brewer's Minute. Over the past few months, one thing a lot of people have asked for is a discussion about the specifics of sideboarding in Modern, so this week for our Brewer's Minute, we are going to look at this question by examining the most played sideboard cards in the format and talking about what matches they are for and what replacements (if any) are available in the format.

One of the interesting aspects of Modern as a format is just how important sideboard cards actually are—if you look over the lists of the most played cards in the format, you'll see that it's littered with cards that show up exclusively or primarily in sideboards. The question we are looking at today is why. Why is Stony Silence the tenth most played card in the Modern format, even though you'd never even consider putting it in your main deck? Hopefully, by the time we're done, we'll have a better idea of just why these cards are so important, what decks they fight against, and why, when you are building a deck, you should be including these effects somewhere in your 75.

While there are plenty of substitutes that deal with artifacts and enchantments like Ancient Grudge, Wear // Tear, Nature's Claim, Vandalblast, and Kataki, War's Wage, none of these cards really do what Stony Silence does. Take Kataki, War's Wage, for example. Against Affinity, Kataki, War's Wage can be just as good as Stony Silence, making it really hard for the opponent to execute their game plan. On the other hand, Kataki, War's Wage does very little against Tron, which is looking to sacrificing its artifacts rather than leaving them out on the battlefield. One of the most important things in building Modern sideboards is picking the widest option available (the one that does something against the most decks) because the format is so diverse. And while the other artifact hate cards are good in specific situations, nothing matches Stony Silence in terms of its power to simply beat a certain percentage of decks all by itself, which is why it is so good and heavily played in Modern.

As for other options, the list is fairly long. Scavenging Ooze can be good, especially in decks with Collected Company or other ways to tutor up creatures. Rest in Peace nukes all graveyards forever—just make sure you don't have any graveyard synergies in your deck! Leyline of the Void can be very powerful but only if it's in your opening hand, and Nihil Spellbomb can get the job done as well.

Dispel

Much like Leyline of Sanctity, Dispel has two purposes. Controlling decks often use it to win counterwars to keep from dying to opponent's combos, while combo decks use it to protect their combos and force through their game-winning play. While there are plenty of substitute counters available in Modern like Negate, Spell Pierce, and Mana Leak, when your only goal is to counter your opponent's counterspell, it doesn't get any more efficient than Dispel.

Other Somewhat Popular Sideboard Options

Kitchen Finks is a main-deck card in some builds but is also used from sideboards to fight aggro by gaining some life and blocking twice.

Vendilion Clique is the blue Thoughtseize, getting rid of the best card in your opponent's hand and also giving some free information, which can be extremely helpful.

Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, like Kitchen Finks, is a main-deck card in some decks but also comes in from sideboards to fight against spell-based combo like Storm, while also being helpful against pretty much any deck with a lot of non-creatures.

Conclusion

Anyway, that's all for today. Hopefully, going over the most played and most important sideboard cards will be helpful. Next time you sit down to construct a sideboard, keep these cards in mind. Finding room for them will greatly improve some matchups and help shore up weaknesses in your main deck! As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.

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